Oil and Gas Conference Must Acknowledge Climate Crisis, Say Campaigners

Environment campaigners have condemned the Oil and Gas Conference for ignoring the climate crisis. The yearly Oil and Gas Conference is currently taking place in Aberdeen, Scotland, but campaigners say it has overlooked the need to make sure Scotland has a clean energy future. Today Roseanna Cunningham revealed that Scotland has met its 2020 climate targets six years early.

Friends of the Earth Scotland Director Dr Richard Dixon said: “It is ironic that on the day the Scottish Government announced that it has met its climate targets for the first time, oil and gas firms are meeting to discuss how to drill for every last drop in the North Sea.  The future of the fossil fuel industry cannot be discussed in a parallel universe where climate change doesn’t matter.

“Climate science tells us that 80% of coal, oil and gas reserves must stay in the ground if we are to keep global temperature rises below 2 degrees, while last years’ Paris Agreement highlights the gravity of even 1.5 degrees warming.

“The Government and industry are missing an opportunity to put Scotland on a path of rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels. We know that the change to clean, renewable energy is well underway across the world and by co-operating with workers, communities and unions we can manage that transformation in a way that is fair to those affected.

“Scotland’s Business Secretary Keith Brown is calling on the UK Government to provide further subsidies to the oil & gas industry to encourage yet more exploration, whilst his cabinet colleague Roseanna Cunningham is rightly lauding Scotland as a climate leader in other sectors. It’s simply not credible for the SNP to keep trying to ride both these horses at once. The bottom line is that going after billions of barrels more oil and being a climate leader are mutually exclusive positions.”